Chapter 236: Peace Talks? Or Surrender?
With one sentence, Egger had exposed the opponent's hand. Mance Rayder was momentarily speechless. He rested his arms across the table, remaining silent for a moment before speaking with a grim expression: "The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder, and those ghostly things moving in the woods are becoming stronger. Not only is their range of activity drawing closer to the Wall, but the killing effect of fire and dragonglass on them is worsening. If we don't find a way past the Wall soon, I and my people will all perish in the Haunted Forest and become puppets of the Others..."
Having been shut down once, Mance finally stopped playing word games and switched to a more candid opening. Jon stood to the side, hand on his sword hilt, while the high-ranking officers of the Night's Watch focused their attention on the Wildling. The First Ranger, Jaremy Rykker, remained unmoved and shrugged: "That's wonderful news. From then on, the Night's Watch and the residents of the Seven Kingdoms will never have to worry about the Wildling threat again."
"I admit, the defense of the Wall is organized thoroughly. If you don't grant passage, the Free Folk have no hope of passing by their own strength," Mance did not snap back at Jaremy's words but continued: "But since I dared to come here today, I have come prepared—aren't you curious why I chose the Frostfangs, so far from the Wall, as a gathering point? And why, after gathering a hundred tribes, it took us so long to reach the Wall? Guess what my people and I were doing north of the Wall during that time?"
"Was it not that you brought too much baggage, slowing your march?" Mormont said displeasedly. "Months ago, Qhorin Halfhand of the Shadow Tower interrogated captured prisoners and warned me that you might be searching for some mysterious means to breach the Wall. I intended to organize an expedition to investigate then, but ultimately abandoned the plan for a series of reasons... Regardless, let me give you a piece of advice—stop using these questions to continue our exchange. We are gathered here, not to chat with you."
"Fine, fine." The situation was stronger than the man; Mance Rayder helplessly raised his hands in a gesture of understanding and quickly revealed the answer: "Qhorin Halfhand was right. As my former superior, he knows me too well. I led a hundred tribes, slowly moving south along the Frostfang Mountains and the Milkwater, digging three feet into the earth and opening countless graves just to find a legendary item—the Horn of Winter. This thing is also called the Horn of Joramun. In the songs, Joramun, the King-Beyond-the-Wall a thousand years ago, blew it to wake the giants from the earth. It is said that by blowing it near the Wall, one can cause the Wall to collapse."
"Pffft—" Jaremy burst out laughing. "I've heard that story too, but if such a thing truly existed, why didn't Joramun blow it back then? Are you trying to say—you found that horn, and if we don't let you back alive or open the gates for the Wildlings, your men will blow the horn and bring the Wall down? Do you think the Night's Watch are fools?"
"I've always been half-skeptical of the stories in songs; as for whether the horn works, who knows without a blow?" Mance shrugged. "I indeed have subordinates who wanted to try, but I stopped them. If the Wall truly falls, what else is there to stop the Others from marching south to exterminate humanity? No matter what happens, I do not wish for those monsters to pass the Wall and destroy the entire human world..."
Mormont found this amusing: "So, you found a legendary horn, but you aren't sure if it can bring the Wall down, and you don't intend to try... then how is this any different from it not existing?"
"Because I know what is important; I know which matters more between my own safety and the survival of mankind," Mance said. "Yes, I was once a man of the Night's Watch, but I eventually fled the Shadow Tower to join the Free Folk. By your rules, I am undoubtedly a traitor... but what about the many Free Folk beyond the Wall? They also have parents, lovers, and children... they eat, they drink. How are they different from those living south of the Wall?"
"How are they different?" Bowen Marsh interrupted with a look of disgust. "People living south of the Wall don't climb over as raiders to murder and steal, or kidnap your women to be their wives."
"That is because the climate south of the Wall is far milder and the resources far richer. You don't need to take risks to live well!" Mance's voice rose significantly. "But even under such harsh conditions, raiders are only a tiny fraction of the Free Folk! A group of hot-blooded men proving their courage and improving their lives by bringing back loot from over the Wall... how is that essentially different from those who swear into the Watch hoping for honor, or those who take the black because they can't survive or committed crimes? Not to mention, those men have almost all died in the battles against the Wall. Those remaining are nearly all innocent! Why would you rather let the Free Folk die for nothing and turn into enemies of the living, than give us a path to survive, let us pass the Wall, and stand beside you against death in the near future?"
"Fair words. Opening the gates and letting you pass is easy, but what then? Let the forts along the Wall become nothing but Mole's Towns? Let giants camp in the ruins of Winterfell? Let cannibal tribes slaughter the mountain clans and seize the Wolfswood? Let raiders go deep south to White Harbor and the Neck to steal Northern daughters and rape their wives?" Bowen sneered. "The Night's Watch does not need outside help to keep the Others out of the Seven Kingdoms!"
"Highly likely, but what gives you that confidence is those few thousand mountain clansmen." Mance did not answer directly, but turned to another matter: "Your allies have indeed played a great role, but I have skinchangers with me. They can enter the bodies of eagles and soar over the Gift and the North, using their eyes to observe the situation. With their help, I know that although you rely on the mountain clans to defend the Wall, you are facing immense food pressure. And right now, the North itself is facing trouble and can hardly continue to support the consumption of the Wall..." He asked with a serious expression, "Since you already know of the existence of the real enemy, why would you rather hold onto old prejudices and hatred than accept new helpers who desire to stand with you against death? I admit defeat! Let us in; we have brought all our winter reserves. Even if we give you a portion, it is enough for everyone to eat well for a good while."
Egger breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Mance was using a strategy of playing for sympathy and reasoning... When he mentioned the Horn of Winter earlier, Egger feared this King-Beyond-the-Wall was stupid enough to try and threaten the Watch into opening the gates. If the opponent had taken that path, the negotiations would have hit a dead end, and no matter how much Egger wanted to absorb the Wildlings, or how much influence and new ideas he had, he wouldn't be able to turn the tide—his words carried weight, but the Night's Watch was not his personal dictatorship. The black-clad legion was an organization of soldiers, after all; even if the Horn of Winter were real, the defenders of the Wall would find it difficult to accept a threat and open the gates to an enemy.
"No one would rather you die than have your help," Mormont listened seriously to Mance's words. "But there are two questions—first, who can guarantee the Wildlings will behave after passing the Wall? Second, the Wildlings claim to be a hundred thousand strong. With such a massive number, even with grain, it's difficult enough to feed yourselves. How much reserves do you have to dare say it's enough for everyone to eat for a good while?"
"I have never controlled a hundred thousand Wildlings. Perhaps there were once that many north of the Wall, but by the time the Free Folk realized what was ambushing and killing us in the forest and banded together for self-preservation, hundreds had already met with misfortune, and many more scattered beyond reach... When I finally gathered a hundred—and that number is an estimate—tribes in the Frostfang Mountains, we had about seventy thousand in total. We gathered more on the way south, but at our peak, we never reached eighty thousand." Mance answered the second question first: "And after the consumption of this period, only half of those people remain."
"You lost forty thousand attacking the Wall?" Mormont asked. "But we haven't killed that many."
"Only a minority were lost in the assault. The greatest threat to us are those beings that lurk by day and move by night." Mance's expression shifted, seemingly reliving the terror of the Others' attacks: "To avoid them, we had to stay as close to the Wall as possible, but to keep you atop the Wall from seeing our movements, we had to maintain some distance. Although we have the knack for dealing with the living dead, they still launch ambushes almost every night under the lead of the Others. If we're lucky enough to repel them, we have time to cremate the corpses; if we fall into chaos in the dark and fail to win quickly, our enemies increase by dozens or hundreds the next day... A portion are dead or wounded, but even more are those who left the main force, fleeing out of despair and fear."
Though Mance's tone was flat, everyone present could hear the fear and hopelessness within it. Fortunately, it wasn't them facing the Others directly outside the Wall.
"So, you have less than forty thousand left now?"
"These days, seeing that there was no hope of breaching the Wall, I made a difficult decision to give the next generation a greater hope of survival—I let the wounded, the sick, and the elders who reached a certain age end their own lives to lighten the burden on the others." The King-Beyond-the-Wall was expressionless. "This is nothing new. Every winter in the past, there would be some who were infirm and near death who would voluntarily enter the forest empty-handed to give their lives to the Old Gods... but this is the first time it has been done en masse. To prevent them from becoming the living dead, we chose to consume poisonous berries and let the living burn the bodies after they fell. Now, we have thirty thousand left."
So that's how it is. Mormont nodded. "But you didn't answer the other question. How do you guarantee the Wildlings will behave after passing the Wall, rather than threatening us or even invading the North?"
"I believe I just answered that question," Mance said. "Thirty thousand people—though the elderly are gone, there are still infants and children... with a large number of warriors already dead in the assault on the Wall, we cannot threaten the entire North. Furthermore, despite failing to command the breach and having twenty or thirty thousand flee, when I proposed that the Free Folk who might burden others end themselves, hundreds still followed through. What is that? It is a manifestation of prestige and control. I can, and will, manage my people!"
The Wildlings had relied on self-termination to reduce the burden, controlling their numbers to a certain level to ensure that the remaining resources were enough to feed their own while still allowing Mance to beat his chest and guarantee the Night's Watch: he could help solve the Wall's food crisis!
As soon as these words were spoken, the high-ranking officers in the hall were momentarily speechless. Some, like Chief Steward Bowen Marsh and First Ranger Jaremy Rykker, were shocked by the Wildlings' decisive and tragic choice for survival; others, like Jon Snow and the younger newcomers, felt no old hatred for the Wildlings and couldn't help but feel a surge of compassion.
Only Egger felt a surge of excitement—the Wildlings had actually voluntarily culled the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled from their population, those who had lost the capacity to work or fight! Something so unthinkable in a civilized society, and they had actually done it; and Mance, who proposed this plan, hadn't been killed by his own people!
Imagine: a high-quality labor group composed entirely of a young population, extremely cheap, with no pressure of elderly care for at least ten or twenty years... these were the citizens the ruling class of many countries could only dream of!
The most crucial point: if what Mance said was true, the number of Wildlings had now dropped to a level the Night's Watch could control, and the Logistics Department could sustain them using the relief grain from Braavos.
And now, the opportunity to claim this nearly perfect group for his own use was right in front of him!
Mance Rayder had no idea that his words had inadvertently made one of the most influential people in the Night's Watch itch with desire. He had thrown all his chips; now... it only remained to see if the Night's Watch would agree.
"No one doubts your prestige among the Wildlings," the First Ranger said. "But because of that, I am afraid—that you will rely on this influence to turn the tables after passing the Wall, commanding the Wildlings to attack us."
"The Wildlings united around me because I promised to lead them south of the Wall to take refuge," Mance answered. "But in the end, I couldn't do it. Ultimately, it was through negotiation that I convinced you to let us pass. Under these circumstances, I have no power to convince the Free Folk, who have gone through blood and fire and finally settled south of the Wall, to take up arms again and continue fighting... If you truly cannot rest easy, then keep me at Castle Black as a hostage."
"Permit me to interject," Egger raised a hand. "There is one point I don't know why no one has mentioned... I believe the Wildlings have no right to negotiate with us. I prefer to use another term to describe this conversation—a surrender ceremony."
"Is there a difference? Peace talks, or surrender, use whichever word you like. I only demand passage for myself and my people."
"No, there is a big difference." Egger gave a slight smile. "If the Wild... Free Folk are to surrender to the Night's Watch, then I believe we have the right to set all kinds of conditions. Mance Rayder, if you can agree to the following two points, I can represent the Logistics Department of the Night's Watch and support letting you and your people pass."
"Speak."
"One: hand over all weapons before passing the Wall, to be kept by the Night's Watch. Two: after passing the Wall, you will become new residents of the Gift, following the Laws of the Gift set by the Night's Watch and submitting to our management."
"Handing over all weapons can be discussed, but laws?" Mance laughed. "The Free Folk have their own laws. They will not kneel. Even if I agree, I cannot enforce it."
"This is not a discussion. As for whose laws to follow, I'm afraid it is not their turn to choose freely," Egger did not smile. "If they are unwilling to follow the laws of the Gift, then stay outside the Wall and die with that 'freedom.' If you want to pass the Wall, you must fully accept our conditions!"
...
Mance stopped smiling and stared at Egger for a moment. Seeing that the other Night's Watchmen did not interrupt him, it was clear the Chief Logistics Officer's words carried weight, confirming the fragmented intelligence his subordinates had provided: "I said, even if I agree, I cannot enforce it."
"The articles of the law will naturally contain penalties for those who do not comply. As long as you agree, whether it can be enforced is the business of the law enforcers; it is not your place to predict the future."
"Since you are so confident, then I agree. When can the gates be opened?"
"He is not the Lord Commander," Bowen interrupted. "If a vote is to be taken, then representing the Stewards of the Night's Watch, I oppose letting the Wildlings pass."
"I also believe we need to discuss this further," the First Ranger said as well, "but I respect the Lord Commander's opinion."
Mormont and the First Builder did not state their positions. Egger had a sudden inspiration and whispered into Mormont's ear: "My Lord, agree first. Once the Wildlings are gathered outside the gates of Castle Black waiting for passage, what the laws of the Gift will be—or even whether we open the gates to let them in or launch a surprise attack to seize their grain and leave them to their fate—will be entirely up to us, won't it?"
The two had already discussed this in previous conversations. Mormont nodded slightly, pretended to hesitate for a moment, and as Lord Commander, gave the final answer for the Night's Watch.
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